Games requiring primarily mental skills are extremely popular pastimes for the elderly and/or physically impaired. Such persons generally do not have the capability for strenuous physical activities, but games requiring at least some mental activity are quite valuable in maintaining the alertness of such individuals. Many, if not most, individuals have learned the elements of at least a few card games during their lives, and continue to play such card games after retirement or during recovery from injury or illness due to the time available and need for mental stimulation.
One relatively popular card game is cribbage. However, cribbage differs from most other card games in that it requires a scoreboard with a series of holes defining the accrued point count for the players, and a plurality of pegs positionable in the holes of the cribbage scoreboard. Most such cribbage boards and pegs are relatively small and uniformly finished for compact storage and consistency of appearance. Such cribbage boards provide some utility, but may be difficult for an elderly or impaired person to use, due to a lack of visual acuity, fine motor skills, etc. In fact, many such cribbage boards are sufficiently small that the scoring marker pegs are formed of match sticks or toothpicks.
Moreover, the standard cribbage board requires two laps of the scoring track to complete a game. Historically the game was originally developed to require a total of 61 points to complete a game. However, as the game developed, the required winning score was essentially doubled to 121 points. Yet the cribbage board which was developed for Scoring remained unchanged, with two rows of 30 holes or places totaling 60 places for each player (plus the single winning 121st hole or place for each player). The result is a need to complete two rounds or laps of the scoring track or path in order to win a game. While many impaired persons have excellent long term memories and are quite capable of remembering the rules to a card game learned long ago, they may have difficulty with short term memory tasks such as recalling the number of laps of the cribbage board scoring track they have completed. Such a situation is frustrating to say the least for those involved, and can be alleviated to a great extent with the proper equipment.
The need arises for a cribbage game apparatus comprising a board having well marked and spaced apart single peg scoring paths or tracks, and scoring pegs providing for distinctive feel and color for each player. The resulting size of the board should provide for storage space not only for the scoring pegs, but also for at least one deck of cards. The board may be folded when not in use in order to conserve storage space.